Keep her safe
by Inky8Fingers
Summary: i don't like doing this, it gives away the story... but ok... Jack, finds kid, kid do stuff.Have fun! T for Safety.


**Desperately seeking safety**

_Jack…Jack! Keep her safe, Jack... I'm counting on you._

Jack sprung out of slumber with a desperate gasp, his hands going straight to his temples. He gritted his teeth and screwed up his eyes waiting for the pain to pass, like he always did.

This was the 5th night he'd had that dream, and it was starting to get the better of him. Always the same words, "keep her safe", what did it mean, who should he be keeping safe?

He quickly glanced over to check Ianto was still asleep, before gently placing his feet on the floor beside the bed. He peeled back the covers and padded over to his little bathroom in his boxers, slowly closing the door before turning on the light with a soft click.

He placed the lid down on the toilet with little noise, and sat, leaning his elbows on his knees, and watching the pull string for the light swing hypnotically back and forth.

He had no idea how long he sat like that before his silent torrent of thought was disturbed as Ianto opened the door and looked in sheepishly.

"Sir, you've been in here a while, is everything ok?"

Jack shone his warmest smile at him, and let the warmth spread to his eyes for once.

"Yan, we are sharing a bed, you could at least drop the sir." He joked, chuckling a little as Ianto's cheeks turned a slightly darker shade of pink.

"Sorry, force of habit…" he mumbled.

He opened the door to it's full and walked the few steps to the toilet, and knelt down in front of Jack.

"Jack, what's wrong? I know there has to be something; you've done this 5 nights in a row."

He place one hand on the side of his face, his thumb gently rubbing his cheek.

Jack patted him affectionately on the head, and smiled his wonderful smile.

"At the moment, It's nothing, but I promise, that if becomes even the slightest bit more important, you will be the first person I tell."

Ianto sighed, sensing that that would be all he got from him tonight.

Using Ianto's head, jack levered himself off of the toilet seat and headed back to the bed. Ianto looked round, and saw jack crawl back beneath the covers and snuggle child like into the duvet. He let the slightest of smiles play across his features, and shook his head, before heading back over, kissing Jack on the forehead, and laying down next to him to wait for the alarm to alarm clock to ring in half an hour.

"Jack, give that back, it isn't funny! I need that!" Cried Gwen, reaching for the small square of paper Jack currently held just out of reach.

In the back Owen sniggered, Tosh gave an exasperated sigh and Ianto made Coffee.

"Well you can't have it." Jack retorted, he turned around, using one hand to keep Gwen away, and the other to read what was written on the note.

"To Gwen-" he read aloud, "-My number i-" The Alarm sounded, and jack dropped the piece of paper on the nearest desk, and headed for his coat.

He rushed out the door towards the SUV, shouting orders at his team, who followed closely behind.

With Jack behind the wheel, it took them mere minutes to arrive at their destination, and on arrival, they were met by the sight of police car after police car all surrounding the little council house, its dirty windows giving it the look of a house in which lots of… shady deals were done.

The sirens got to Jack, the pain in his head throbbing at the noise, but then there was a scream, followed by a gunshot, then silence.

Jack looked up, panic rising. He sprinted towards the police tape barrier, shouting Torchwood after himself as he headed for the house, no idea weather the others followed him or not.

The sight that met him as he walked in to the dingy little house, disgusted him, but didn't shock him, he'd seen this kind of thing too many times to be surprised now.

Lying on the floor, was a woman, her arm torn clean off, just lying lifeless on the floor, her neck in a position that was certainly not natural.

Beside her, with a bullet hole through his fore head, lay an alien, plain and simple. The deep red of his blood stained the pale blue skin that was stretched across his surprisingly human features.

But what caught Jack's eyes next, was so sad, he nearly felt like crying himself. Half under the woman, lay a little girl, her arms reaching desperately for the table, trying to pull herself away, but just serving to dirty her pretty pink dress, her mother's blood quickly turning it a deep red, but she didn't cry out, just lay there, little tears trickling silently down her infantile face.

Jack took a step forward, and bent down, careful not to disturb the bodies to much, and very gently put a hand on her shoulder. The little girl flinched and tried to pull away, but was trapped by the woman's dead weight on top of her.

"Shhhhhhhh, it's ok, we're gonna' get you out of there and everything is going to be fine." He knew his words meant nothing, of course everything wouldn't be ok, her life had just been turned upside down.

She let out a little whimper and pulled the lady's lifeless arm across to hide her face.

Jack carefully rolled the woman over to release the child, who immediately sprung up and ran out the door. She headed straight for the nearest person, who happened to be a very startled looking Owen. He tried to prise her away from his legs, but she just tightened her grip.

"Oww.." came his reply, but only half heartedly.

"Jack, what is this? Why is it… attached to me?" he asked, the confusion plain across his face.

"Poor kid, mother was probably a druggy, and now she's dead, killed by a man with blue skin. We take her back to the Hub, I want you to take care of her while we finish up Owen, then as soon as we get back I want you to do a full medical analyses, Physical and psychological , check for injury, shock and anything… abnormal."

Owen stood in confusion before his mouth found something to say that wasn't an obscenity.

"You can't leave me in charge of a child, I'll, I dunno, turn around and tread on her or something stupid like that." He tried again to prize the child f his leg, but she once again tightened her grip and let out a little grunt of outrage.

"She doesn't look like she'll cause much trouble, and I promise we'll only be about half an hour. Just go sit in the Suv, play I spy, whatever. There may even be a couple of cereal bars in the door on the driver's side. Just keep an eye on her Owen, and if you can, find out any information you can, like her name for a start."

Owen watched Jack walk away before kneeling down in front of the little girl and wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. He picked up her hand and gave her a nervous 'I've never done this before' smile.

"Come on then, let's see about those cereal bars." She gave a little nod and allowed him to lead her towards the SUV.

* * *

"Well, know we have established my name, what about you, can you tell me your name?" he asked gently, lightly patting her on the shoulder.

She looked confused for a second before answering slowly.

"I don't … have one…" she looked confused.

"What did your mum call you?" Owen prompted, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't remember." She said as a little tear trickled down her cheek.

Owen sighed, wiping it away and pulling her onto his lap. She Snuggled into his coat and continued to cry quietly.

* * *

Owen could feel his eyes slipping shut, and was grateful when someone opened the door beside him.

"Hey, hey, mummy, wake up." Jack said.

"Shut up." Came the reply. Owen glanced down at the little girl asleep on his lap.

Jack smiled and got in so he could close the door and keep the warm in.

"Did you find anything out?" he asked settling himself on the other seat.

"She says she doesn't have a name, and can't remember what her mother called her." The little girl began to stir, so he rubbed her back gently. Upon opening her eyes she saw Jack and hid in Owen's jumper again.

"Maybe that wasn't her mother who got killed, I mean, they don't look at all similar and there aren't any things in the house that would shout 'a child lives here!'. No toys, no books, no clothes, nothing." Jack pondered. She peeked out of Owen's jumper and looked at Jack who smiled at her. She let go of Owen and turned enough to look Jack straight in the eyes.

There was a little purple spark and she pulled her head away as fast as she could, letting out a small cry. Jack's hand flew to his head, and clenched his eyes shut.

_Keep her safe Jack, _was all he heard before the pain was gone.

He gasped and opened his eyes.

"Did you hear that?" he asked the little girl, she nodded and poked his eye.

"Ow! What was that for?" she kissed her fingertip and pressed it to his eye.

"Sorry, was just checking you real. Kiss it better." Jack laughed and wiped his watering eye.

"At least you aren't afraid of me now. But don't poke people's eyes out, it isn't nice."

She looked at her feet and nodded, Jack ruffled her hair.

"Ok, first question, who was that lady?" The little girl sat and thought for a moment.

"She said her name was Joan, she found me sitting on her door step, I was there 'cause… I don't quite remember why, but that's were she found me."

"Right, what about your parents, your real parents, where are they?"

She gave a little sob and cried out, "I don't know, I don't remember!" she started to thrash her way towards the door.

"Let me out! Let me out!" she screamed. Owen caught hold of her waist and dragged her back onto his lap.

"Shhhhhhhh, it's ok, you're safe here, we won't hurt you, we promise." She clutched her side and whimpered.

Glancing at Jack, Owen lifted up the side of her dress, and placed a hand on her side where she had been clutching it.

"Bruising, and internal damage, looks easy enough to fix, but only if I we were back at the Hub" Owen declared, carefully pulling her dress back down.

He stroked her hair and rocked very, very slightly back and forth.

"You're a natural, Owen, I never thought you had it in you. You always seemed like a heartless bastard, but here you are looking like you've been taking care of children all your life…" Jack looked baffled, and amused at the same time.

"I am a doctor you know, I have to be able to calm a patient down, whether they're adults or children, but I'm not particularly keen on either. Can we please drop this and get the team together so I can get back to the Hub and fix this." Owen replied, never actually looking at jack.

"Fine, fine, just making an observation, that's all." Jack said, putting his hands up in mock defeat.

* * *

HELLO EVERYBODY!

A/N- It's very hard to write with one finger on one hand, while trying to eat three TUC biscuits at once, but, I try…

Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon, that's if my Art Teacher hasn't killed me for not getting my coursework in on time…

See you soon, and while you're at it, you couldn't just press that little blue button could you? I can't quite reach…

Disclaimer: (here cause I forgot it at the beginning…) I do not own any of the torchwood characters, or the actual program. I just own the kid… and Joan.

Writing is an absolute bum… I get an idea, manage to write a few lines, and then…. nothing, so don't hold your breath for the next chapter.

…Sorry...


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